--- title: "NASA Engineer: Humans Should Consider Settling Saturn’s Moon Titan" description: "If the Earth becomes inhabitable, a NASA engineer named Janelle Wellons says we should think about settling Saturn's moon Titan." date: "2019-03-16" modified: "2019-03-16" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/nasa-engineer-humans-settling-titan" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Moon" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "NASA" - "saturn" - "Titan" --- # NASA Engineer: Humans Should Consider Settling Saturn’s Moon Titan ![nasa-engineer-humans-settling-titan]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Destination: Titan If the Earth becomes inhabitable, a NASA engineer named Janelle Wellons says we should think about settling Saturn's moon Titan, and she has a laundry list of reasons why — including that you might be able to fly by flapping your arms. "It has a thick atmosphere that could help protect us from space radiation," Wellons [wrote on Reddit](). "It is so dense that we could actually attach wings to our arms and fly on this moon. I don't know, it just seems like an awesome place to live." ## Largest Moon Wellon's comments came in a Reddit appearance in which NASA engineers, scientists and pilots fielded questions from the public. One Redditor asked where the team would recommend settling if conditions on Earth became untenable, and Wellons chimed in with what she said was a "more interesting answer than the standard Mars or Moon response." "How about we consider one of the water worlds in our solar system — Titan," she wrote. "Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, larger than the planet Mercury even, so I think we could settle with plenty room." ## Swim Good In spite of Wellon's enthusiasm, there are definite downsides to Titan. It only gets about [one percent]() of the sunlight Earth does, and [according to NASA's research]() its maximum temperature is a wintry -292 degrees Fahrenheit. But Wellon is still a fan. "Now as for the conditions on the surface — not as rough as you may think," she wrote. "Titan is the only place besides Earth known to have liquids in the form of lakes and seas on its surface. These liquids are made of methane but, armed with the right kind of protective gear, one could theoretically be able to swim without harm!" **READ MORE:** [NASA engineer looks to Saturn moon Titan for human colony]() \[*CNET*\] **More on Titan:** [Titan Has Even More in Common With Earth Than We Thought]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()